Jaguar Land Rover reports soaring £1bn profits

Great expansion at its Midlands and Liverpool factories will create 1,000 new engineering jobs.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced record profits of £1bn, just a few years after seeking government aid to prevent collapsing.

Huge remand from the Asian, South American and Middle Eastern markets - particularly India and China - has turned the company around and increased sales by 26 per cent this year to a quarter of a million vehicles, making it one of Britain's most important exports.

Analysts have credited the comeback to increased cost efficiency by JLR, as well as higher profit margins and the selling of more expensive models such as the Jaguar XJ. The car company was bought in 2008 by India's Tata Motors from Ford for £1.1bn.

Sales in China were up 70 per cent on last year and even up 8 per cent in the UK - its largest market - to 42,000. The best selling UK model is the Freelander, with a starting price of £36,000.

A spokesman for JLR said: "We employ 17,000, but our UK payroll number should increase to 20,000 by 2013. We plan to spend £1bn a year over the next five years on production and development."